


in the moment, we're lost and found

by scorpiusshug



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Astoria Greengrass - Freeform, Astoria Greengrass's Blood Curse | Blood Malediction, Canon Compliant, Cursed Child, Drastoria, F/M, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Hogwarts Era, Hogwarts Sixth Year, I have loved writing school aged Astoria, One Shot, POV Astoria Greengrass, Pre-Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Short One Shot, The Owlery (Harry Potter), also astoria is obsessed with owls, and the events that happen to draco in his sixth year, dracos sixth year, drastoria one shot, hogwarts era drastoria, includes minor mentions of astorias blood curse, moments of (owl) fluff, neville longbottom - Freeform, young astoria
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27261571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpiusshug/pseuds/scorpiusshug
Summary: Astoria Greengrass finds a sense of comfort hanging out in the Hogwarts Owlery- making friends with the owls or cosying up in the corner with her favourite book, a safe place away from the bustling corridors of Hogwarts. When a figure with a dark secret sets his foot into the owlery, will an unlikely friendship form?Featuring grumpy owls, laughter and light in the darkness!
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass & Draco Malfoy, Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	in the moment, we're lost and found

Looking out onto the Hogwarts grounds, Astoria Greengrass could just about make out the tentacles of the giant squid creating ripples in the gentle hues of pink and yellow that were reflected upon the surface of the great lake. Groups of students were making their way up to the castle, pulling their scarves tighter around their necks to shield themselves from the evening chill, absent minded chatter about the day's classes and the many unfinished inches of parchment that were due in early the next day, being carried away on the harsh winter winds.

Astoria found a sense of peace in the world that was carrying on outside the window pane, it made her feel like a part of something much bigger than the rushed late night visits to St Mungo’s, the concerned faces of the ones that loved her so dearly, her weekly check ups with Madam Pomfrey. Staring out at the vast expanse of beautifully lit sky, and the forest and hills that stretched out for miles and miles, Astoria knew she wanted to make more of her life than just her sickness. She pulled herself away from the window when she felt a twinge in her side, and busied herself with attaching a letter that she had been meaning to send to her parents for a few days to her owl, Buttons’s foot. She gently patted his tawny feathers and found herself smiling as he flew out into the sky.

Footsteps echoed on the cold stone floor as a figure made their way up the stairs. Astoria turned to smile and say hello to whoever it may be, when her heart stopped. Her eyes briefly flickered up and were met with the stormy grey ones of Draco Malfoy, devoid of any of their light. Dark shadows stretched out underneath them, aging him a good few years. He looked almost unrecognisable to how he had the last time she’d caught a proper glimpse of him, on the train journey home from Hogwarts in the summer, laughing with his friends, playing an elaborate game of what looked like wizards’ chess. Of course she had seen him drifting around school this term, but he often missed meals and was never sat in the common room, in fact the only time she would see him was the back of his head as he made his way quickly down the corridors, always in a hurry.

Astoria had always suspected there was more to him than the pompous, arrogant show he seemed to be putting on, but seeing the ghost of Draco Malfoy stood amongst the eaves of the owlery, confirmed what she had thought all along: Draco Malfoy was a lonely soul.

The blonde boy had broken eye contact with Astoria immediately, and headed to the far corner to attach a letter to what Astoria presumed was his owl’s leg. Astoria knew instantly that she wanted to help him, to check in and see if he was okay, but had a hunch that that would be ignored or maybe even laughed off, Draco once again putting on a show.

Instead she settled with talking about what she loved best: the owls.

“Are they yours?” Astoria gently broke the silence.

He turned around, obviously rather startled by her words.

Never one to give up, she tried again. “What’s their name?”

He stared at her, completely taken aback.

Astoria elaborated “Owls are my favourite animal you see, and there’s so many of them up here. I enjoy getting to know all their little quirks, they all have rather different personalities, and I often feel knowing their name helps to understand them better.”

Draco was beginning to look rather disgruntled, obviously he was in a hurry and had more important things lurking in his mind than making conversation with the girl sitting by herself in the owlery,so he sent his owl off and turned on his heel to stride out of the room. He was halfway out of the door when he stopped and muttered: “Athena.”

Athena, as in the ancient greek goddess often represented by owls, Astoria smiled. She must have been right, there was more to Draco than what first meets the eye.

Several weeks passed and Astoria had all but forgotten her interaction with Draco Malfoy in the owlery, when a voice made her look up from the page of the book that she was reading.

“You’re here again?”

She picked up her bookmark, a craft project made from the flowers that she and Daphne picked and pressed one summer night long ago, from the windowsill and placed it in amongst the well-thumbed pages of her loved copy of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_.

“It’s a cosy place to read. It can be quite atmospheric when it's thundering outside,” she said, nodding to the storm raging on over the grounds.

A silence settled over them as he strode over to the alcove that seemed to be Athena's favourite spot.

“I also like spending time with the owls,” Astoria piped up again. “Most of them are very friendly, apart from old Barry over there, he's often in a bit of a grump, but if you catch him on a good day, and I mean, a really good day, sometimes he’ll let you give him a bit of a stroke, without nipping you.”

She heard a slight chuckle from Draco and decided to walk closer to him.

“So this is Athena then?” Astoria reached forward to pet her.

“Careful, she's a bit playful.” Draco warned.

“Oh, I don't mind,” Astoria laughed, reaching forward to brush her hand against her feathers. Astoria didn't want to pry into Draco's personal business so did her best to avoid looking at the address on the letter that he was busy attaching to his owl's leg.

“She seems to quite like you,” Draco exclaimed after Athena had disappeared into the night.

“Well I am somewhat of an owl whisperer,” she joked.

A flicker of a smile turned up the corners of his mouth as he strolled over to the staircase and headed off into the bustling corridors of Hogwarts, his presence fading from the owlery like a ghost.

It was a sunday afternoon and Astoria had pulled her cosiest winter sweater over her head and taken the familiar journey along the corridors, past the bickering portraits and up the staircase to her favourite spot.

“Good girl, Athena” a voice alerted her of the presence of Draco in the Owlery.

“So are you into greek mythology then? Athena is a beautiful name, I love how she was worshipped for her wisdom, I bet she would have been a ravenclaw.'' Astoria found herself getting excited. “She’s always been my favourite goddess, mainly because of her link to owls.”

Draco turned around to meet her eyes “My god, Greengrass, you can't half talk can you?”

Feeling embarrassed, Astoria pulled her book out of her bag and buried herself in it, ignoring Draco and his harsh words.

From the corner of her eye she saw him getting ready to leave the owlery, before pausing to speak. “Sorry for snapping, it's been a rough week. I- er, I actually didn't know that, about Athena and the owls.”

Snow had wrapped the grounds of Hogwarts in its glittery grasp, becoming a snowball fight warzone, but Astoria hadn't been there to see it. She instead had had to watch the flakes lazily fall from her bed in the St Mungo's blood malediction ward, for she had caught a terrible bout of flu, and her parents, not wanting to risk her weak immune system, had taken every precaution. So she’d found herself spending the second and third weeks of the spring term in the hospital ward in which she had spent a lot of her childhood.

On her first evening back at Hogwarts, Astoria’s first priority was racing up the steps to the owlery.

“Did you all miss me?” she softly joked to the owls, not expecting a response.

“Only a little,” replied a smirking Draco.

“Merlin's beard!” Astoria cursed. “I didn't expect anyone to be up here, I was obviously talking to the owls.” She knew she must have been turning a horrible shade of pink.

“I knew that, but it was a bit strange, to come up here and not see you sat on that window ledge.”

Astoria opened her mouth to begin to explain where it was she had gone, but something stopped her. She didn't want Draco to only see her as her illness, so instead found herself saying “So did you take care of the owls then, whilst I was away?”

“I tried to make acquaintances with Barry over there, but he refused.”

Astoria found herself laughing, all the worries of the hospital vanished in the warmth of the owlery.

Letting out a sigh, Astoria shut the pages of the potions textbook she’d desperately been trying to understand. Usually she was okay at catching up with work she had missed, but Astoria had always struggled with potions and according to Slughorn, the content she had missed out on was key for her end of year exams.

“You look quite miserable, Greengrass, that book of yours causing you trouble?” a voice drawled.

“Not as much trouble as the boy interrupting my studies” she retorted.

“But in all seriousness, what is that? Potions?”

“It is,” she huffed. “Calming draughts specifically, I just can’t seem to get my head around them.”

“Well, in my fourth year I was quite the star potions student, so I suppose I could talk you through it?”

“Oh, yes please, that would be wonderful, thank you.” Astoria shifted herself over and made room for Draco and listened intently as his voice echoed around the owlery. She noticed that his eyes had regained some of their spark, he looked more alive again as he was keen to share his knowledge.

Blossoms had covered the trees and fallen slowly to the floor, the promise of warm summer days hung on the spring breeze. The grounds had sprung to life, the trees regaining their colour, creatures emerging from hibernation. The pair often found themselves in the owlery, Astoria speaking animatedly about everything she’d ever learnt about owls, happy to have someone to share it with, Draco helping her through the fourth year potions course, them both making up names they felt most suited the owls that they didn't know, people watching out of the window, sometimes spending hours discussing animatedly what the owls’ lives as humans would be like; Oswald the snowy owl would work at Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour and be happily married to his husband, and they would spend their holidays travelling the world together, Esther the little owl would be brilliant at charms and would create chaos everywhere she went, and Barry of course would be a rather grumpy potions professor. This had quickly become their favourite game, although it had taken Draco some persuasion to participate, he secretly loved it.

It had been almost a week since she had last spoken to Draco. Rumours had flown around the school that the Draco Malfoy had been rushed to the hospital wing, with injuries ranging from a broken arm to him being completely unconscious. She had even heard from some not very hushed voices at the slytherin table that it had been Harry Potter who was responsible for it. Astoria had wanted to rush to the hospital wing straight away but knew it would have been no use, for injuries as intense as the ones Draco had been rumoured to have, there was no way Madam Pomfrey would have permitted him any visitors. Instead she decided to spend every evening in the owlery anxiously hoping he would emerge up the staircase. She had been startled when she saw someone racing up the stairs and had even said a rushed hello hoping it might have been Draco, before she realised it was Neville Longbottom.

“Oh hello, Astoria.” His face was bright red and he was all out of breath. “I'm just sending a letter to Gran, I forgot it was her birthday today.” He grimaced. “Do you by any chance happen to know which of the school owls is the fastest?”

Astoria was grateful for the distraction and busied herself with introducing Neville to the two owls she knew were quick flyers.

She sat in the dimly lit slytherin common room, an empty piece of parchment that was supposed to be her charms essay sat abandoned on the desk in front of her. Astoria found herself absentmindedly watching out of the window as the giant squid floated past in the murky water of the great lake, before deciding that she was simply too distracted to write.  
Later that evening Astoria crept back up the steps to the owlery, exhaustion weighing her down with every step. She was still awash with worry, and to make matters worse, the sharp pains in her side had prevented her from sleeping, so she had tried taking her mother's advice and had gotten up and pulled her green silk dressing gown on and then headed off on a walk around the castle to distract herself. When she reached the top of the staircase she was shocked to find herself staring at the figure of Draco Malfoy, sitting looking out of the window, body covered in deep red scars. He looked in a right state, but Astoria was just relieved to see his face again; some other time she would have made a quip about his expensive looking pyjamas but she decided against it.

Draco stared at Astoria, his face glowing gently in the pale moonlight.

“I was finding it hard to sleep,” she murmured.

“Me too, today was rough.”

Astoria gracefully walked up to the window seat where Draco was sitting as he pulled his knees close to his chest to make room for her. They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment, simply grateful for each other’s company, when Buttons flew in through the window and landed on Astoria’s hand.

“You never did explain the name, did you?” Draco asked. “Buttons? What kind of name is that for an owl?”

“Says the boy who named his owl _Athena_ , unaware that she is literally the goddess of owls,” Astoria teased back.

“Excuse me- It's a pretty name! And I was nine at the time.” Astoria let out a gentle laugh.  
“But go on. Why Buttons?” he urged.

As she recounted the tale, she found herself lost in her memories.

When they were little, Daphne and Astoria Greengrass had always been rather inquisitive children. They could turn anything into a game, and used to sneak out into the village to play as dragon keepers, potioneers, princesses or whatever wild fantasy they had read about that week in one of the many books from the Greengrass family library. On a hot summer day, they had taken a rest in the local park, and were sat looping daisy chains for each other to wear as crowns, when the screams of delighted children had startled them. They had looked over and seen some young muggle girls laughing and chasing each other around. Daphne had tugged on Astoria’s dress and whispered that it was time for them to head home, but Astoria, quietly intrigued by these girls, had found herself wandering closer to them. She had never been that close to muggle children before and just wanted to hear the kind of things they were chatting about, when one of them had started racing their way towards her.

“Hi! I’m Lauren,” the girl had said cheerfully. “Would you like one of my chocolate buttons?”

She rustled around in her pockets and pulled out a purple crinkly packet with a drawing of a cat on the front.

Astoria hadn't known what to do. She knew her parents would have been horrified to hear that she’d taken sweets from a stranger, let alone a muggle stranger, but she was feeling brave and felt it simply rude to turn down her offer.

“Yes please!”

She reached into the packet and selected a button, which had turned out to be a small brown circle, and placed it in her mouth.

Pure delight landed on her tongue and she smiled as she realised that it tasted just like a chocolate frog, only it wasn’t ‘alive’.

“Do you want to play stuck in the mud with us?”

Astoria stood panicking, she did want to play with the girls but simply had no idea how to.

Lauren spoke again, clearly seeing the confusion on her face. “Everyone runs about and one person is the sticker, it's their job to chase after everyone and tap them so they get stuck and then everyone else tries to free them by running under their arms.”

Astoria had picked up on the game really quickly and was having the time of her life, when she caught sight of her sister's face poking out from behind a tree.

“I've got to go!” she yelled to the girls “I hope I'll see you around.”

She had been worried that Daphne may have run to their parents and reported straight back to them about her adventures with the muggle girls but she had promised that her sister's secret was safe with her. From that day on Astoria had made firm friends with the girls in the park. They would chat about their favourite books, invent new games to play and share bags and bags of their favourite sweets.

When she had received her Hogwarts letter she had been thrilled to follow in her sister's footsteps and carry on adventuring at Hogwarts, but had been devastated at the idea of leaving her muggle friends behind. She had been packing up her trunk when her parents had surprised her by bringing an owl cage into her room, with her very own wide eyed tawny owl sat inside. Astoria’s father had asked her if she had any name ideas, and she had thought about it for a second and then very determinedly said Buttons so even when she was apart from her friends, she would always have a reminder of them with her.

The next morning she had left for Hogwarts nervously clutching onto her bag of fizzing whizbees that she was keeping in her robe pocket, calming her nervous mind with the reminder that sweets had always helped her make friends.

Draco had raised an eyebrow several times during the story, particularly when it came to Astoria’s adventures with the muggle children, but had remained listening intently, clearly grateful to have something to focus on, rather than whatever it was that was causing the shadows that fell across his face.

“Buttons suits him. Thank you for providing me with a clearly much needed distraction.”

For one of the first times in her life Astoria struggled to find the right words. She wanted to tell him that she was there for him, that she could tell that there were much bigger, darker things surrounding him but that she wanted to be there to help him, that she understood there was more to him than the cold exterior he presented to the world. Instead she reached forward and gently placed her hand upon his, feeling a warmth rush over her when he gently squished back. She rested her head against the window pane and slowly drifted off to sleep in the starlight.

The following week had been awful, the corridors were fraught with tension, there had been an increase of students hexing their classmates, Astoria had felt the absence of Draco weigh upon herself again, she hadn't really seen him since she had fallen asleep holding his hand and been awoken by a morning chorus of owl hoots, alone. She was worried that she had scared him off, the one time that she had seen him pass her in the corridor he had desperately avoided eye contact and looked even worse than he had all year, like he wasn't sleeping at all. The week had been topped off with the awful feeling of despair that had made Astoria’s heart sink when she had been awoken from a deep sleep by her sister and the pair had headed from the dungeons to the grounds and stared up at the ominous grey clouds of the dark mark swarming the astronomy tower.

The news of Dumbledore's passing hadn't really settled in until breakfast the next morning when the students were forced to stare up at his empty chair.

She had arrived in the owlery holding out hope that perhaps Draco would be waiting for her  
but that faded away when she reached the top of the staircase and saw the owlery empty of human life. Nonetheless, she stopped at each owl’s alcove and gave them all some attention as she said her goodbyes for the summer. She reached Athena's favourite spot and was mildly shocked to find a letter still attached to her leg.  
“Athena, what’s this?”

The owl cooed in response and nudged the letter towards her.

Astoria hesitantly picked up the envelope and turned it over to see her own name scrawled across the fancy paper, so she delicately tore open the envelope. She pulled out the contents; a singular piece of fancy parchment with elegant handwriting, that looked like it had been rushed written across it in a gold fountain pen.

_Dear Astoria,_  
_I hope that you are doing okay and that you have a wonderful summer, I am writing this letter to thank you for being such a light in the darkness this year,_  
_yours faithfully_  
_Draco_

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! It was so much fun writing drastoria for the first time and playing around with the events of Draco's sixth year to slot in the little connection that's blossoming between the two!
> 
> A huge thank you to the incredible littlerose13 for being so wonderful, motivating me to start writing again, listening to many an in depth voice note about this little idea I had and betaing for me! I couldn't have done it without you :)
> 
> the title is a lyric taken from birdy's song 'wings' taken from my drastoria playlist!
> 
> find me on tumblr: albuspottrs


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